By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
“Let’s Get Physical” was a No. 1 hit in 1981 by Olivia Newton-John that was about something other than football.
But it applies today for No. 16 LSU, which opens Southeastern Conference play – known for its toughness still in this more finesse day of college football – at 11 a.m. on ABC when the Tigers (1-1) play at South Carolina (2-0) in Williams-Brice Stadium.
The Tigers are coming off a 44-21 win over B League Nicholls State, as in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), last week in which the Colonels manhandled LSU at times on both lines of scrimmage. LSU coach Brian Kelly mentioned how “physical” Nicholls State was four times in his opening statement after watching his national brand allow 145 yards rushing to smallish tailback/Wildcat quarterback Collin Guggenheim and gain just 64 yards rushing.
“They were physical,” Kelly said. “You could tell how much it meant to those young men to play here in Tiger Stadium.”
And maybe how much it didn’t mean to your team.
“They were physical, and they controlled the clock,” Kelly said.
“They worked their tails off this week,” Kelly said of his team. “But they just did not have the same energy, the same snap, the same kind of physicality they had against USC. They (the Colonels) were physical. They controlled the football. We have got to run the ball more effectively, certainly.”
But a day later, Kelly did a complete flip on his team’s flop after “spending seven hours dissecting film” of the game. What game he and his staff watched, though, may be at question.
“I think the most important thing was this sense that we were out-physicalled,” Kelly said of a sense that he created and harped on more than anyone. “And that simply wasn’t the case.”
Wow, that may be the biggest about face since Donald Trump said in 2014 that he would release his tax returns if he ran for president. And as he runs for the third time, he never has, excluding a House committee making him.
Those who have watched the LSU-Nicholls film see what Kelly saw the first time as clear as Zapruder.
“I think they out-physicalled us in the trenches,” former national champion LSU defensive tackle Marlon Favorite said on Tiger Rag Radio this week. “Particularly our offensive line. And I have a couple of clips in particular, where they were just more physical than us. Maybe coach Kelly was referring to the second half, but that first half, I mean, I was in awe.”
LSU did clamp down on Nicholls in the second half on both sides of the trench, but only after Guggenheim gashed the Tigers up the middle for a 67-yard touchdown to cut the Tigers’ lead to 23-21 with 13:52 to go in the third quarter.
“Tonight was a game I will remember for the rest of my life,” Guggenheim said.
Favorite, who played on LSU’s 2007 national championship team and is a radio football analyst, couldn’t get it out of his mind, either, at least for this week.
“Look at Guggenheim! He had 150 yards on the ground, and they didn’t out-physical us? We have to be honest with the play of LSU,” he said. “I don’t care what anybody says, I watched the trenches, man, the entire game. And them boys, they were pushing us around. Nicholls State, they came to fight. And that they did. I have to be honest. They came in there just a swinging with us. I mean, I can pull up that game film right now.”
LSU’s players saw what Favorite saw up close and personal.
“I thought was a combination of everyone not doing their job at times, and – honestly – not playing physical,” LSU linebacker Greg Penn III said after the game to a questioner who had just heard Kelly’s “physical” comments.
“Just guys playing a little soft as a whole defense in general. We just need to be more physical as a group,” Penn said.
“The team didn’t come out with a lot of energy, and that’s something we have to fix,” LSU cornerback Zy Alexander said.
“We need to improve our mindset,” LSU tight end Mason Taylor said. “We’ve got to paly with a sense of urgency, and we’ve got to flip that mindset.”
Flip on, “Let’s Get Physical.”
As the late Olivia sings, “Let me hear your body talk, your body talk.”
LSU’s offensive line will have to, particularly when South Carolina defensive ends Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart rush quarterback Garrett Nussmeier. The Gamecocks are No. 3 in the nation in sacks with 10. Kennad is fourth in the nation with 3.5 a game, and Stewart is 15th with 1.25 a game.
LSU has not allowed a sack this season.
“We’ve got a whole bunch of tough guys in that room,” LSU right offensive tackle Emery Jones Jr. said of the Tigers’ offensive line. “They have good SEC D-linemen. But I feel like we’re pretty good, too.”
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